One of the little boys in our church’s preschool raised his hand and volunteered to be a donkey in the annual preschool Christmas pageant. Then a few days later one of his friends told him it was “stupid” to be an animal. So he went home and told his mother he was Read More...
John 3: 16-19 A 13 year old’s Christmas Morning Checklist: Open stockings. Eat cinnamon rolls. Call paramedics. Wait, what?! Paramedics aren’t on the list. There’s supposed to be church and a big meal and playing with presents, right? Well, that long-ago Christmas morning in our house there were paramedics. Then a call Read More...
Mark 1:1-3 The Christmas tree has been trying to tell me something. It’s the perfect Currier & Ives tree. So pretty you can almost hear the baby angels singing O Holy Night. But moments after we think the tree is secure in the stand, the cat innocently sashays underneath and you can guess what Read More...
Isaiah 9:2, 6-7 Scholars call it intertextuality, placing one thing next to another. One of the classic examples is how the prodigal son parable in Luke’s Gospel could be echoing the Jacob story in Genesis. Lots of reverberations there when you set those two next to each other. Whenever I read these Read More...
Luke 1:46-49 We are just a few days from the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus and I can’t help but think am I ready? Questions and thoughts keep bubbling through my mind…. Have I taken time to think through all the ways I can make the day special for my Read More...
As we prepare for the church year, it’s my practice to think about Christmas during the previous July. For 2018, I wanted to find a piece of music with great spirit to it (something that would cause Rev. Joe Walker to spontaneously whistle in the hallway after church), but with a text Read More...
John 1:1-5 The Bible helps us understand Jesus better with references to light. For example, He illuminates the darkness, His glory glows, and His love radiates in us and through us. In the physical world, we are drawn to sources of light like basking in the sun, watching a candle burn, or Read More...
Micah 5:2 Hope is a part of being human, and hope takes many forms. We hope that traffic isn’t bad on our way to work, or we hope for our favorite sporting team to win their next game. All December, children hope for their favorite toy to be wrapped underneath the tree Read More...
Matthew 1:18-24 One day in Catholic school the dear old nun was teaching us about Joseph’s dream in which he is called to be Jesus’ earthly father (Matthew 1:18-24). Sister told us that Mary was a better example of discipleship than Joseph because Mary said “Yes!” almost immediately to God’s plan while Read More...
Luke 1: 25-38 What could it mean to dream the impossible? In my living room is a ceramic figuring of Mary in the middle of a nativity scene. It was gifted to me this year from my grandmother, whose grandmother gave it to her decades ago. To me this year, it is much more Read More...
Revelation 12:1-6 Whenever I lead a “Bible and Art Tour” at the Nelson with my docent friend Donna Houtteman, one of the pieces we talk about is a life-size wooden carving from Germany, of Mary and child. She has long, flowing hair, with the naked infant Jesus resting in her arms. But Read More...
My friend Nancy writes “there is no such thing as hope for those who refuse to see the need for hope.”* Dave and I got married in January of 1993. On our first Christmas as a married couple, we were alone in an apartment I didn’t like. No kids or parents or Read More...
